captain america

16 hours ago, CoryHolmes said:

 

 

My bad, when he said "it's expensive" I mis-remembered it as "rare to find".  

I guess expensive is relative. If a large plank costs 700 bucks and lasts 7 years, I consider that bloody cheap. My time/labor is by far the "costliest" part of  a project. I use quotes because anyone who has ever tried to contract these types of projects understands that the guys who charge the most usually cost the least in the long run. The biggest money-pits and time-wasters are the jobbers that'll do it for a "good price" as a sideline.

Thanks for posting that video! Just another reminder that I need to find a vac-forming machine.

8 hours ago, CoryHolmes said:

I was told that modelling board (Renshape???) is increasingly hard to come by.  Do you have to ration what you use for a project?

Increasingly hard to come by according to whom? I buy a 2" by 16" by 60" plank once every 7-10 years, so I can't say I've noticed.

I don't ration, but I try to work-out what types of materials and construction methods(s) are best suited to the shape or part I'm making. I re-use a lot of small Renshape pieces simply because I have so many, and it's faster than working from a large slab.

7 hours ago, CoryHolmes said:

On those really bulbous shapes, was it hard to find a parting line that didn't have an undercut?  Or is that not much of a problem with your pink goo?

Undercuts are almost everywhere on my parts, but the beauty of silicone rubber is that it stretches. The bigger problem is twofold:

-I often get really ambitious with sculpting, often creating parts that have cavities at either end (like the thigh or the shin armor) and that can very easily lead to trapped air, which in turn leads to extra pockets of resin that need to be de-burred by the modeler. Thankfully, I've developed some hacks to remedy that problem in 97% of cases

-then comes the issue of where do I place the mold partitions and gates so as to give the modeler the least amount of grief, while still making sure that the part will mold properly? Many times you will see mold lines on primary surfaces, and this is by design: I'd rather have the modeler repair a relatively even, undetailed surface that's easy to sand, rather than try to hide the parting line and put it in an area that can affect fine detail, or worse, on a mating surface that will alter how parts fit together. 

Making molds is a bit like playing chess in your head, in that you have to anticipate things 2, 3, 4 steps ahead to avoid problems down the line.

Captain’s Log: March 10th, 2021.

After my ‘eventful’ mold-making experience from last week, I’m happy to say that things are now back to normal. Further, all the masters for the BIO-LLOYD figure are now complete, and once I get these next few molds out of the way, I’ll be able to dedicate myself to the completion of the hover-sled. 

To say that this project is an exercise in tediousness and patience is to state the obvious. Pic 41 shows my molding station, and all the fingers, tiny bloobs, pitot thingies, and other bits that need to be molded. The extra effort comes from not only the addition of all those tiny bits, but then those bits have to be molded, cast, and then modified to suit LLOYD’s different variants, as we will see soon enough.

Pic 42: good ol’ trustworthy pink mold silicone is back!

Pic 43: believe it or not, this is only about 3/4 of all the molds needed—JUST FOR THE MECHA! Blasters, hands, visor domes and sled parts not included.

Speaking of blasters, pics 44 and 45 show the drum weapon masters, while 46 and 47 show the weapon used by Seifreet’s unit (hereafter refered to as SATAN CLAWS.)

Now back to the BIO-LLOYD variations, you can see the different toes required in pic 48. Based on the soure material, the toes for the blue unit have a different slope than for the other two versions, so I had to make those. Could I have chalked-up the differences to variations in the penmanship of the illustrator? Probably, but it they looked sufficiently different to me, and I wasn’t about to cut corners.

Same goes for the thighs in pic 49. On the left is the SATAN CLAWS version, which has a different blob on it than the other two variants. In pic 50, you can see that the thigh, knee, and even the upper part of the shin armor is different on the SATAN CLAWS variant. For the latter modification, you can simply trim the ‘ears’ on the shin and glue the variant parts as shown in pic 51.

The chest module is no exception, as you can see in pic 52. Once again, SATAN CLAWS variant is on the left. The other two variants are simple enough that you need only glue the appropriate blobs in place. You have NO IDEA how utterly tedious and despair-inducing it was to machine those little hoses!

For next week, it’s my intention to have one fully cast kit mocked-up so that you can see LLOYD in all his splendor. Wish me luck!

It's really not such a bad series. I re-watched it to get as many screen references for the Zor mecha as possible, and despite its many truck-sized plot holes, they aren't much worse than what you'd find in other TV serials of the time, including MOSPEADA. As a toy/mecha-crazed kid I didn't care for it so much, but as an adult I find the lack of heavy mecha emphasis more appealing. It's no Dougram, but not nearly as dull as teenager-me remembered it.

1 hour ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Glorie is a barren wasteland being dragged kicking and screaming out of a nuclear winter by terraforming, it has a one world gov't and only a few actual cities, and is sparsely populated.  It's not even clear why Glorie has a standing army at all since humanity hadn't encountered any aliens at all and there weren't any rival nations to fight with either.  There's no catalyst for drama there until the Zor show up... and the same is true of the Robotech adaptation.  

Depends on what sort of events may have transpired pre-Gloire. Humanity isn't renown for its long periods of warless tranquility.  The newly-colonized planet you're on is a borderline hostile wasteland, your homeworld is faaaaar away and may take a long time to send help if something goes pear-shaped, or may not be able to send help at all, so it actually makes sense to have an important segment of the population be of fighting standard. The pseudo-alien Zor may not have been an anticipated threat, but that doesn't preclude the possibility of other renegade humans/pirates (from earth, Liberté, etc.) coming to the colony and causing trouble. 

7 hours ago, Podtastic said:

They are cool. Some people just want transforming jets - and nothing else -  I think.

BTW no obscure alien mecha on your list? 

I never understood the "evolution" of the Zor Bioroids. The versions we see earlier in the series (red, blue, green) look more advanced than the later ones. I don't even remember this grape-flavored version from the anime.

Captain’s log supplemental: March 1st.

I was hoping to have a more elaborate update on Wednesday, but a molding accident dashed that hope and put me a few days behind. While no permanent damage was done, it did reveal some interesting shortcomings in the new Mold Star 30 material I employed.

In Pic 01, you’ll see the « new » blue Mold Star 30 material, and the pink mold uses the trusty Mold Max 30 compound. With the old pink stuff, I was able to scribble notes and cut guides on the plexiglass, and it would imprint onto the silicone, allowing me to see where I needed to slice the molds open. Pretty useful, right?

Well for whatever reason, this does not work with the Mold Star matrix, so de-molding was a, shall we say, rather white-knuckle experience. No sweat, I’m good at improv… But then the ugly side of the material came to light: even though it’s platinum-cured, it still reacts with anything that has sulfer in it.

Short version: the mold material reacted to the primer.

…

THE PRIMER!! 

ARE YOU F*C#ING SH*TTING ME?!?!?!

…

It’s OK, I’m calm, I’m calm…

So in light of this « interesting » development, I figured I’d share a mold fail for educational purposes.

In pic 02, you can see what the failed mold castings look like: interesting effect, but hardly wanted. A thin layer of silicone on the surface of the part remained gooey, creating a burnt/melted surface texture. There are other issues with the cured properties of the silicone that make it a bad choice for this sort of project which I won’t bore you with. As such, I’ll have to postpone some of the molds a couple of days while new material is shipped to me.

The good news: none of the masters were damaged, and the other molds were actually successful, and resu

lted in some excellent cast parts, which you can see in pic 03. I was hoping to use these castings to show you a full-body mock-up of BIO LLOYD, but that’ll have to wait at least a week. It may end up being for the bast: I’ll use that extra time to work on the pistols so that I can finalize the hands and perfectly taylor them to their respetive weapons. That way, you’ll have even more eye-candy.

My sincere apologies for the delay, and thank you once again for your support and continued patience.

Aaaaand closed! Thank you all for your support. Mini update coming tomorrow 

2 hours ago, tekering said:

Perhaps we should start a Kickstarter campaign...

Only if you want HG to put an end to my kit-making.

16 hours ago, Protoman said:

Not sure if this warrants a separate thread. But could anyone point me in the direction of where I could commission the build of a  Hovertank in the robot mode? It's always been one of my favorite mecha and the Matchbox just doesn't do it for me. 

Hahahahahahaha!!!!!!

Just kidding. If you want something done from scratch, and done remotely properly, expect to pay mid four figures and upward.

-Good and fast won't be cheap

-Cheap and fast won't be good

-Good and cheap won't be fast

7 hours ago, tekering said:

I've been experimenting with a three-shade blend, actually, using a layering technique I picked up from my Japanese friends:

Over a flat black base coat, a couple layers of semi-gloss green are sprayed over the surface, with more even coverage over the raised surfaces and less coverage in the recessed areas, suggesting a subtle gradation in color.  Thinner coats of a slightly lighter green are then sprayed over the most prominent areas, further enhancing the gradation effect and achieving the desired primary color.  It's not as high-contrast as the popular "cel-shaded" look, but it involves a similar combination of colors to achieve a more dynamic finish.

That depends on your source of reference... 

The more research I do, the more inconsistency I find. 

It's easier to determine the right colors for Mospeada mecha because of the wealth of reference material available, including the high-definition Japanese transfers; like Macross, the Blu-rays are definitive. 

Unfortunately, there's nothing as reliable for Southern Cross, as the best DVD transfers are nearly two decades old... and they were low-contrast 16mm masters to begin with.  What's worse, ADV's DVDs show the same heavy blue tint that plagued their Mospeada releases, so the colors are way off.

The green Bioroid is a particular challenge, since there's very little published art and no official merchandise to refer to, either; despite their age, I suppose the original Southern Cross TV broadcasts are the best color reference we have to work with. 

I see what you mean! The green color probably looks different in different scenes as well. I was watching episode 7 or 8 online where they've got Greenie on an autopsy table, and it looked like a rather deep but bright green, much like the '87 VHS release colors. To be fair, even your Gosu looks like a different shade between the scale comparison pic and the recent ones you just posted, so I guess we'll just have to wing it.

3 hours ago, tekering said:

Precisely, yes. 

I'm afraid "as is" remains a rather deplorable state for my King Crab... 

Hey Ted, what shade of green did you use on the Gosu? It looks perfect for the green Bioroid

25 minutes ago, Convectuoso said:

To me you're working extremely fast!

It's looking great. How tall is it?

About 17.5cm

Captain's Log supplemental: February 22nd update

I went ahead and bumped-up this week's review  in order to mark the one remaining week to take advantage of the pre-order special on the 1/48 BIO-LLOYD kit. This way you can also have a better idea of what you'll be getting, and be able to make an informed decision with regards to your purchase. I've opted to finish the figure before commencing on the sled so as to give me more adjustment possibility and make little fit adjustments for a better overall package. 

As you can see, Mr. LLOYD is coming right along. Please excuse the slight rickety appearance of the parts: they're mostly just holding with friction and some temporary hot glue. A few of the smaller parts were left off to avoid breakage and are being prepped for molding as I type. The head for Mr. Blueberry was used here, and since the pic was taken, I've slimmed-down the front part of his "beard" to be more faithful to the source material.

Several parts like the head, shins  and chest plate will have to be completed, molded, cast, then altered and molded again to accomodate all the different variations, thus creating different sets of masters, and that's part of what's taking so long, so your patience and understanding are greatly appreciated. Wait until you see the dinner plate-sized sled this guy rides on!

3 minutes ago, CoryHolmes said:

Are the ball-and-socket joints going to be part of the casting, or will you be adding joints to the finished parts after the fact?

 

Also, I see in some of your photos that you're wearing a watch.  I've always been taught "no rings, no watches, no sleeves" when working on equipment, so how comfortable are you working with a watch on?  Or does it depend on the operation at hand?

The ball-joints will be resin parts in the kit. I tried aftermarket units in the past, but they were always too weak and never the right size, so I make my own. They aren't playable, but are good enough for dry-fitting prior to the final build. You can watch a video I made a while back discussing the joint systems found on my kits.

https://odysee.com/@moscatohobbymodels:7/M72-Gabriel-2:d

Watch: I always have a watch on me, because it's very easy for me to get lost in my work and lose track of time otherwise. It's nothing special, just a Casio junk beater. Short sleeves are a must when operating machinery, though I do frequently wear overalls when Dremelling, just to avoid getting too much dust on my clothes.

Captain’s log: February 17th, 2021

Even though I try to conserve as much modelling board as possible, I always end up with a huge pile of leftover bits, and that pile grows with every project! Thankfully, beause this project is made-up of numerous smaller blobs, I’ve taken it upon myself to recycle some of my scraps and convert them into useful shapes.

Pic 24 is one such instance. Here I’ve cobbled-together threee different parts with some CA glue, and will begin shaping it into one of the blobs on Bio Lloyd’s back.

Pic 25: small parts means many slow, delicate operations. Here I’m going in with one of my many files to shape what will become one of the fingers.

Pic 26: after many frustrating hours, the hands are getting close to finished. The missing knuckle joints are by design, as I will need to cast multiples of these and bend them into predetermined poses before adding the joints. While it’s certainly possible to scratchbuild all the different fingers directly from modelling board, one thing I’ve learned is to take advantage of the different attributes of various materials. Polyurethane castings will be much easier to cast and shape than carve from scratch, and the fingers will have consistent shapes for both hands. Because these mecha hands will only have three fingers (two and a thumb) the fingers need to be beefier than usual to hold its weapon, especially the drum.

Pic 27: remember that cobbled-together scrap in pic 24? That’s it on the right. The different mecha variants have somewhat different back parts, so I’m creating them all modular and separate, which is part of what makes the project so tedious. The advantage is that there will be almost no compromises for the different variations, and even then, I believe that some of those minor differences may be due to a rushed production and rendering schedule than actual differences in shape.

Pic 28: more putty forming being done, and much more to come! The part on the left is the chest housing being fitted for a sensor blob for the green variant, while the head parts you see will be for the blue version.

Pic 29: it’s nice when my camera actually focuses on the foreground subject like it should! Here I’m chiseling the schnozz for the red variant. The chisel in question is in fact an old flat blade screwdriver which I repurposed. Sometimes it’s just easier to make your own hand tools than bying purpose-designed stuff that just never feels quite right.

Pic 30: I decided to use the same visor part as the foundation for all three variants. There are still certain shapes and blobs missing, but that’s because I’ll need to mold the visor first. Those parts will be so small and dainty that it will be safer to mold them as one piece with the head housing.

Pics 31-34: the legs are coming along nicely! As you can see, the shapes are stupid authentic to the line art and with a little extra time and effort, I was able to get some impressive range of motion out of them. I even took care to make the inside of the joints look blobby, like the rest of the design.

Pic 35 shows the arm and hand assembly. The latter is merely the parts from pic 26 dry-fitted, but they look great together and just like with the leg, the wrist will have excellent range of motion—that will probably be needed for it to properly grasp the handle on its sled.

That’s all for this week, don’t forget to tune-in next Wednesday when I’ll have some (semi) full body mock-up shots to show you! Oh, and less than 2 weeks to take advantge of the pre-order pricing. Tick-tock!

2 hours ago, CoryHolmes said:

Hey, Cap'n?  After you take your time to come up with the paper plans, do you still have to make any major decisions while shaping the material?  Or is it pretty much just making your sketches into 3D objects?

 

Also, how do you want payment?  PayPal?  Wire Transfer?  Several goats delivered to your doorstep?

The paper templates are mostly shape outlines. When I have to deal with more complex forms, the paper templates can only convey so much info, so once I start Dremeling I have to switch over to intuitive mode. Also, there's a lot of stuff I just eyeball, like the knee joint. I had one thing planned in the drafting stage, but once I started cutting, I saw that I could get more range of motion if I ventured beyond the blueprints, which is what I did. That's both the challenge and fun of taking sketches that someone phoned-in and turning them into something usable.

I take Paypal & Bitcoin, just PM me for details.

Captain’s log: February 10th, 2021

Pic 12: the adventure continues as I can now begin performing secial operations on designated parts. Here you can see the calf module being hollowed-out for the joint interface.

Pic 13: a similar operation being performed on the thighs. Because of the shape of the parts, the paper templates will be slightly distorted by conforming to the block, I’ll have to make some minor pencil marks to adjust the shapes prior to further cutting.

Pic 14: now that I have some basic parts taking shape, I’ll need to make some ball-joints. My lathe was perfectly clean just 5 minutes before this pic was taken. Initial operations are done with knives, just like working with metal.

Pic 15: unlike with metal, turning resin does offer some advantages, the first being speed of machining. The other is that I can employ hand tools and sanding blocks to sape parts. Here you see me using a photo-etch saw on a part to scribe lines.

Pic 16: some crude shapes now beginning to resemble the intended subject. These will be put aside temporarily while I labor on the joints.

Pic 17: things get dirty fast when I whip out the rotary tool, but it’s so much fun! The calves are the first to get the shaping treatment. I actually have to stage these shots, because it wouldn’t be safe for me to be grinding the part while holding the camera in my lap… To say nothing of getting dust all over delicate electronic equipment!

Pic 18: one of the more challenging parts to make are the thighs. Their overall jellybean shapes need to be perfectly symmetrical, so I operate on both of them in slow sequence, making sure to check my dimensions frequently. It’s a lot of tedious back & forth, and it needs to be done right.

Pic 19: to a normie, this would look like a mess, but it’s carefully harnessed chaos. Mold release is applied to one part, while ample putty is applied to the other, then they are both pressed together to achieve perfectly fitting, conformal parts. It’s more an art than a science, because you have a very short window in which to pull the two components apart to get the desired effect: too soon and the putty will crumble and the effect is ruined, too late and the parts will be bonded together!

Pic 20: more putty shaping taking place here, this time with Tamiya polyester (yellow) putty. This actually gives a cleaner result than the Bondo (blue) putty, but takes 10 times longer to harden, so there are different putties to be used for various operations.

Pic 21: here we see the arm, wich is 60% done. If you study the original line-art, you will see that the elbows are drawn such that they are both facing outward on each side, and the arm bends in the direction shown by the red arrow; basically like an ape. So how do I take this clusterfrack retarded elbow joint and make it bend sensibly while still remaining faithful to the source material? By cleverly repositioning the joint!

Pic22: you can see here that the bending point is camouflaged, but through a combination of joints I can get a 90 degree bend. Considering the limitations of the source material, I’d call that a win, and there will be more.

Pic 23: I’m not quite sure how, but BIO LLOYD is looking really good, really early into development—an encouraging sign to be sure! 

As of today, you can begin sending in payment for your kit(s). The details for CAN/US customers is in the pics, while overseas customers can make arrangements with Return2KitForm

On 2/3/2021 at 2:18 PM, derex3592 said:

Ohh man, this is gonna be fun to watch! 

It's fun to make, too! I've found quite a few interesting hacks to make the design more posable while still being faithful to the source material. i can't wait to show you more.

Captain’s log: February 3rd, 2021

It begins!

After about a week of studying, tracing, correcting and editing rudimentary technical diagrams, I’m finally ready to start chopping modeling board. The START image shows you all the basics I start my project with:

-several print-outs with parts diagrams and line-art references

-modelling board blocks of various sizes; some of which were scavenged from other projects

-some 2-part expoxy sculpting clay (this will come in handy later)

-some thin CA glue

Pic 01: the plots are now carefully trimmed-out. Because there are so many generic looking blobby shapes, I’ve made it a point to scribble notes on some of the templates to better keep track of them. 

Pic 02: because work on the milling machine is critical to the construction of any project, I figured I’d show you some of the cutters I use most. From left to right: a bull-nosed (detail) cutting flute, a 4-blade standard cutter, and finaly a face-end mill. The latter is used for creating perfectly flat surfaces. As a rule of thumb, the fewer cutting blades on the shank, the faster you can carve the material.

Pic 03: some initial surfacing going on before I attach the paper templates. I can use this tool for blocks, but when I need to re-surface smaller parts, I will generally resort to the drill press. I use this face-end mill whenever I can, just because it produces less dust.

Pic 04: some of the blocks need to be cut down to size, just to avoid wasting excessive material, so the larger pieces are chopped-down on the band saw. Because the saw makes a jagged cut, the block will need to go back to the mill for proper surfacing.

Pic 05: only after a considerable amount of block re-sizing can I begin to attach templates to the blocks. Many times I will have both a plan and side template, but cannot attach both at the same time, so I need to add one template, shape the part to that one view, then I can attach the second one.

Pic 06: the grinding stone on the drill press being put to good use shaping one of the many curved parts.

Pic 07: I’ll use the band saw to do some rough trimming of many parts. Because I can’t do precise cuts with this tool, I always have to leave some extra material and remove it by other, more precise means.

Pic 08: one of those more precise means is the mill. Depending on the part, this can be a very tedious process, using many square-cut passes to make a pseud-rounded shape, but it’s precise AF.

Pic 09: once the bigger machines clear away most of the excess, I can now get in close with a sanding block and get the shape just right.

Pic 10: I loathe parts like this. This long, curved part is actually the cross-section of the ankle armor, which I need to make as left and right pieces. By making the cross-section as one piece, I can more easily ensure that the parts will be mirror images of each other. The concave curvature must be machined one pass at a time.

Pic 11: this block represents the cross-section of the thighs, which underwent the same process which you saw in pic 10, and can now be sanded to conform precisely to the template. You can se that there’s still some excess material that the mill didn’t remove, and that’s a judgement call: the mill is precise but slow, and there’s a point beyond which extra milling will not yield extra precision and manual shaping can be done. It all depends on the shape and the part in question.

While this probably wasn’t the most exciting update with regards to progress, it’s probably the most critical and informative in terms of laying-out the process by which an idea is turned into an almost-part. More to come next week, so stay tuned!

On 1/30/2021 at 9:12 AM, tekering said:

One miracle at a time, please. 

Let him deliver the moon before we ask for the sun and the stars. 

This.

The BIO LLOYD project was only possible because a devout fan decided to bankroll the tooling of the masters. Due to the complexity of the project and the generally lackluster support for SC, I don't think it would have been possible to purely crowdfund it. Because of their devotion and because I don't think anyone else will ever give this design the treatment it deserves, I'm giving this project the 110% treatment. Expect an update by Thursday at the outset.

Hi everyone! I'm pushing the first BIO LLOYD pictorial update to next week. Progress is actually going very well, stay tuned!

3 minutes ago, tekering said:

 

The Arii "SOL Bioroid" kit you speak of is awful, even by mid-'80s standards.  It's awkwardly-sculpted, poorly-articulated and smaller than a Hi-Metal R figure...

 

Any perceived value it has is based solely on its rarity, not its quality. 

Moscato kits, on the other hand, are far more rare, and I'm sure you're already aware of their quality.  $300 CAD ($237 USD) is a bargain!

In fairness to L&S (not Arii) they could only do as well as technology, budget, and source material allowed them to. Remember that they weren't fans: they answered to accountants and a corporate structure that saw this as just one more franchise to milk for profit and move on.  

Speaking of that particular kit, have you seen what the originals are going for these days?

On 1/19/2021 at 11:11 AM, tekering said:

Oh, the same size as the old Matchbox Bioroid toy, then.  Interesting coincidence. 

Does it need to be a single piece?  With all the natural seam lines in the design, it would be easy to break the base down into separate parts...

Even split into two parts, each half is considerable in size, so the mold box will have to be custom-made regardless. I'm also seriously considering making some parts from flexible resin to offer posability without violating the source material.